Weekly Trust (Kaduna)
Abdul-Azeez Suleiman
24 January 2004
Jeddah — Saudi Arabian minister of health, Dr Hamed Al-Mane has assured pilgrims that the kingdom has taken advanced measures to serve their health needs even as he confirmed that no cases of contagious diseases have been reported among the estimated 500,000 pilgrims who have already arrived for this year's hajj.
In a statement made available to Weekly Trust, Dr Al-Mane disclosed that the ministry of health has set up 20 hospitals-7 in Makkah, 6 in Medina, 4 in Mina and 3 in Arafat.
Part of the preparations also includes the setting up of 188 health centres-85 in Makkah, 22 in Madinah, 29 in Mina, 46 in Arafat and 6 in Muzdalifa.
The ministry has 155 ambulances with 75 equipped as mobile intensive care units to operate round the clock together with about 9,500 doctors, nurses and paramedics.
The statement said that the ministry has recruited 155 medical specialists and nurses from the United States, Britain, and Malaysia to work in emergency and intensive units.
The ministry however warned that any pilgrim arriving from overseas found to be suffering from a contagious disease will either be sent back home or quarantined in Jeddah.
Dr Al-Mane also disclosed that no pilgrims from the Republic of Congo are being allowed this year in view of the outbreak of Ebola in that country.
He added, however, that there is no ban on pilgrims from China in spite of suspected SARS cases there, saying, the kingdom has advanced equipment for the detection of SARS.
Already, a total of 335,000 pilgrims had arrived in Medina, and 120, 000 of them have left for Makkah as of Thursday evening.
About 2 million pilgrims are expected to perform this year's Hajj with Saudi Arabian airlines alone expected to transport about 921,706 pilgrims to the holy land. Official figures said 1,924,000 pilgrims performed last year's hajj.
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